Xindi Council planet
The Xindi Council planet was the home to the Xindi Council. Its location was top-secret, and the planet was located inside a security zone. The planet was located approximately fifty light years from the Sol system. The Council chambers were located in a fortress built into a mountainside by the Xindi-Avians sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. The fortress was two kilometers above ground level and was perfectly concealed by the cloud layer that surrounded it. The only way in was through the air. After the Xindi weapon's location on Azati Prime was discovered by the Humans, it was moved to the Council planet. It was located in a large underground facility in a rocky portion of the planet. ( ) File:Xindi Council planet surface.jpg|The surface of the planet in detail Appearances * ** (Council chamber only) ** (Council chamber only) ** (Council chamber in telepathic vision only) ** (Council chamber only) ** (Council chamber only) ** (Council chamber only) ** ** , though does not appear in that installment.}} Background information In the scripts for and , the Council chamber was commonly referred to as "Xindi secret chamber". In both scripts, it was described as "a large, dark chamber". However, the script of "The Xindi" referred to the room having "a donut-shaped table in the center," whereas the "Rajiin" script described the table at the center of the room as "triangular". Both scripts made reference to "graphics on the table-top" which dimly illuminated the Xindi sitting there. However, no such graphics actually appear in the final version of the room as depicted in those scenes. The set for the Council chamber was built especially for ENT Season 3 premiere and remained standing throughout the entirety of that season. ("The Xindi" text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) Production Designer Herman Zimmerman noted, "It wasn't taken down until just before the last show." ( ) The set was situated on Paramount Stage 8. ( text commentary, ENT Season 3 DVD) Since the production staffers were at first unsure how the Council chamber would work, it was decided only retroactively that the room's designers had been the now-extinct Xindi-Avians. "At the time we knew that there were Insectoids and Reptilians," remembered Herman Zimmerman, "so there's a certain look of spurs in the columns, for instance; later on, that didn't work at all as Insectoid or Reptilian, but it worked fine for Avians because talons are like spurs – so we feel we kinda lucked out in choosing that as a ''leit motif." ( ) Herman Zimmerman was additionally instrumental in designing the Council chamber's other features, including its access points. "''We had a discussion about ," he recollected, "because I've always admired the triangular doorways there, and we emulated a variation .... On the columns made up the doorways, there's a little spot where it juts out, and then juts out again; and the spaces between them get wider as you go from the ceiling to the floor. It's a minor thing – as most environmental things are in design, you don't notice it unless it's wrong! So if you accepted it, then we did our job. We designed the table after some kind of organic fluid look, as much as we could do with ordinary carpentry. The whole room was designed so there were no parallel walls, for instance; it was a kind of a dead room, soundwise; it was an interesting way to make a council chamber seem a little more eerie, because people walked down the halls or across the room and there's no footfalls, there's no sound." ( ) In the final draft script of , this planet was commonly referred to as "cloud-covered planet". The surface of the planet was described thus; "The cliffs thrust upwards from a lower cloud layer and disappear into an upper one... they seem to hang in space. Clinging precariously to the cliff walls are a cluster of majestic, ancient-looking structures... a dizzying, vertical compound suspended in the heavens." The script also described this spectacle as an "awe-inspiring sight" and detailed that the first visible representation of the planet's Xindi-Avian stronghold was to be "a staggering view of the stronghold in all its vertiginous glory." Another area of the planet's surface (the Xindi weapon's launch site) was scripted to be "a barren, desert-like plain." A "temporary residence" in the Avian stronghold was described in the script for "The Council" as "a sparse suite where Council members reside during off-hours. A window looks out on the massive cloud-cover." For "The Council", a concept sketch of the mountainous Xindi-Avian fortress was drawn by illustrator John Eaves. The image can be seen here. In the final draft script of , this planet was referred to only once, identified as "Council planet". The same script additionally included a description of the Avian stronghold that echoed the one from the script for "The Council", describing it as "the cluster of majestic, ancient-looking structures clinging to the towering cliff face seen in 'The Council'." de:Xindi-Ratsplanet nl:Xindi raad planeet Category:Unnamed planets Category:Delphic Expanse